Pros:

Cons:

Nintendo has a habit of creating gaming genres left and right, and everyone else has a habit of trying to copy them. With Mario Party, Nintendo invented the party game, and no company has yet to successfully mimic its quality or appeal. Unfortunately, this hasn't stopped Sony and Cool Boarders developer Idol Minds from trying -- My Street is the worst party game to date.

The game's setup seems innocent enough, really -- the player's custom kid has just moved to a neighborhood inhabited by a number of diverse children, each of which has their own diverse game they like to play with their friends. There are seven games total, including "Magnetic Marbles," "Volleyball," "R.C. Cars," a chemistry-themed "Tetris" type game, "Dodgeball," "Chicken Herding" and "Lawn Mowing." Each of these games can accommodate up to four players in person (with a Multi-tap) or online.

The paragon of the genre, Mario Party 4, had 50 mini-games; My Street has a mere seven. While these games are more complex than those in Mario Party, this doesn't tend to be a good thing. The appeal of Mario Party's mini-games lies in their chaotic simplicity -- games are fast, fun, and short, and if you get one you don't like, you'll only have to bear it for a few seconds before it's over. By introducing actual complexity to the games, all Idol Minds has managed to do is drag out each gaming session considerably. By the end of most matches, players will be just going through the motions of playing to get on to the next game.

So, let's describe the games, then.

In "Magnetic Marbles" you control a large marble to magnetically draw smaller marbles through a goal.

"Volleyball" is one of the most complex games, dropping the player into a 2-on-2 match.

"R.C. Cars" is a simple and difficult-to-control R.C. racer, also featuring an impossible-to-aim tank variant.

"Chemistry" is a fairly standard falling blocks puzzle game, but doesn't really have any kind of staying power.

"Dodgeball" poorly tries to rip off the classic Super Dodgeball from the NES and feels an awful lot like the "Volleyball" game in the process.

"Chicken Herding" is sort of fun, but only 'cause it's a shameless rip-off of a fun game. It's like Sonic Team's Chu-Chu Rocket, only the rules have changed slightly and features pigs and chickens instead of cats and mice.

The "Lawn Mowing" game is a less-fun variant of "R.C. Cars," in which you try to cut down the most grass in the time limit.

None of the games are original, few manage to be fun even once (let alone multiple times), and two of the games feel like rehashes of other games, lessening the value even more.